Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
The presidency moved at the weekend to protect the dignity of the office of the President by directing the National Security Adviser (NSA) to investigate the contract crisis rocking the House of Representatives.
The presidency moved at the weekend to protect the dignity of the office of the President by directing the National Security Adviser (NSA) to investigate the contract crisis rocking the House of Representatives.
Presidency sources disclosed that the Director-General of State Security Services (SSS) was mandated to assemble relevant documents pertaining to the award of contracts to renovate the Speaker's residence and that of her deputy.
Mrs Patience Etteh and the National Assembly management had awarded contracts totaling N628 million for the renovation of the residence of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers at the Apo quarters and to purchase 10 Jeeps as official cars.
The directive, it was learnt, followed the mentioning of the president's name in the controversial contract, which had been widely condemned as negating accountability and transparency.
Spokesman of the House, Melaye Dino, had said that the President was aware of the contract, when he was defending the Speaker.
Even though the President's spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, said that the presidency would wait until the Speaker briefed it, the continued condemnation of the contract made the NSA to ask the SSS boss to furnish his office details of the contract.
Some members of the House, led by Hon Halims Agoda, had vowed to get to the root of how the renovation project that was not captured by the budget had to be executed allegedly without laid down procedures.
The management of the National Assembly, led by the Clerk, Ibrahim Arab, had been making frantic efforts to save its neck since the contract scandal blew open.